Guy wire insulating means



April 26, 1-960 R. H. EARLE 2,934,595

GUY WIRE INSULATING MEANS Filed May 14, 1958 mvEHToR Ran? H. EARLE a A GATTORNEY United States Pate GUY WIRE INSULATING MEANS Ralph H. Earle,Wauwatosa, Wis., assiguor to McGraw- Edison Company, Milwaukee, Wis., acorporation of Delaware Application May 14, 1958, Serial No. 735,208

2 Claims. 01. 174-176) This invention relates to guy wire insulatingmeans.

Where guy wires are employed for bracing poles for electric distributionlines or for other electric lines, it is customary to place insulatingspacers in the guy wires between the pole and the ground anchor means.

Heretofore it was the usual practice to use fittings of various kindsattached to the insulating spacer by means of bolts or other attachingmeans, which required holes to be drilled in the insulating spacer toreceive them. In using fittings of the customary types, a considerableamount of the insulating spacer material was wasted by drilling orotherwise machining or working the insulating spacer.

The insulating spacer may be of any suitable material. Frequently it ismade of a plastic which has added thereto fiber glass to improve itscharacteristics. This insulating material, as well as most materialsused for the insulating spacer, is quite expensive. It is highlydesirable, therefore, to waste as little as possible of this relativelyexpensive insulating material.

An object of this invention is to provide guy wire insulating means inwhich very little or practically no insulating spacer material iswasted, and in which the insulating spacer need not be worked at all,except for very minor things, perhaps for a slight taper at the ends,but in which there is no substantial working and in which a great savingin material is thus effected.

It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide aconstruction which conserves as much as possible of the expensiveplastic insulating spacer rod and yet provide a substantial mechanicaland strain resisting fastening means at one or both ends of the spacingrod or member.

A further object is to provide a construction in which preformed wiresare used, such for example as those found on the market at the presenttime which are usually so constructed that they have an initial set towhich they tend to return when in use, and to so construct thisinsulating spacer assembly that the preformed wires tend to grip theinsulating spacer without the necessity of using any additionalfastening means whatsoever but depending wholly upon the initial set orshaping of the preformed wires, and in which the gripping increases asthe tension increases.

A further object of this invention is to provide an insulating guy wirespacer means which may be used to directly join the end of the guy wireto the insulating spacer rod or member or which may be used with aclevis or other fitting customarily used in power line transmission andto so construct the insulating spacer means for guy wires that theoperation of joining the guy wire to the insulating spacer becomes arelatively simple and easily performed operation.

A further object is to provide a construction in which a spacer means ofa given diameter may be joined to a guy wire of a different diameterwith the utmost ease and without requiring any extra work in making theconnection.

Embodiments of the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings inwhich:

Figure 1 is a view of one form of the invention showing an insulatingspacer interposed between the ends of a pair of guy wires.

Figure 2 is a view of a further form of the invention in which theinsulator is interposed between a clevis, or other fitting, and the endof a guy wire.

Figure 3 is a view showing the manner in which the construction shown inFigure 2 is formed.

Referring to the drawings, particularly Figure 1, it will be seen thatan insulator 1 is interposed between the guy wires 2 and 3. 'Theinsulator is connected to the ends of the two guy wires by means ofpreformed wires which are formed as tubes in a well known manner.

An end of each of the guy wires is placed in the correspondingly formedtubular portion 4 of the preformed wires and is firmly gripped .by thesewires for, as the guy Wire is pulled in a direction outwardly from thepreformed wires, these preformed wires tend to grip the guy wire tighterand tighter.

' The outer end of the preformed Wires that is to say the end farthestfrom the guy wire' is expanded as indicated by the reference character'5. Preferably aclamp 6 is placed around the original tubular portion ofthe preformed wires so that when the wires are expanded or more widelyseparated as shown for the portion 5, this expansion or separation ofthe wires will not extend into the portion 4 as the clamp 6 limits thedistance that the expansion occupies in the preformed wire assemblyindicated'generally at A in Figure 1. The preformed wire assembly forthe-other guy wire 3 is indicated generally by the reference character Band is used in identically the same way as that described for 'theportion A. The same reference characters are used for the two sections Aand B.

' sulator 1 may be abrupt, that'is to say the insulating spacer may becut across a uniformly shaped rod of the desired insulating material. Inthis case the expanded portion of the preformed wires is suitably bentor shaped so as to take or conform to the abrupt ends of the insulatorrod either initially or when in place.

Obviously these insulating spacers can be placed between any suitabledevices desired. For example, in the form shown in Figure 2 thepreformed wire assembly for the left hand end as viewed in Figure 2 isformed in exactly the same manner as that illustrated in the portions Aand B of Figure 1. In fact, to minimize the length of the description,the same reference characters are used in Figure 2 for the left handportion of Figure 2 as were used for Figure l. The left hand preformedwire assembly shown in Figure 2 is indicated generally by the referencecharacter C.

The insulator isindicated in Figure 2 by the reference character 8. Itdiffers from the insulator shown in Figure 1 in that only one end,namely the left hand end of Figure 2, indicated by the referencecharacter 7, is tapered. The other end of the insulator indicated by thereference character 9 is blunt or abruptly cut directly across the rodfrom which the several insulators are cut.

Figure 2 also shows the manner in which a clevis or other metal fitting10 is connected to the guy wire 11.

Referring to Figure 2 again, and to Figure 3, it will be seen how thepreformed wire assembly shown at the right hand end of Figure 2', andindicated at D, is secured in clamping relation to theend 9 of thespacer 3. The pin 12 of the clevis 10 has looped around it a portionindicated by the reference character 13 of the tubular preformed wireassembly.

This preformed Wire assembly has its ends indicated by the referencecharacter 14 spread apart and stretched so as to open the spiral of eachone of them. These open portions of the spirals of the portions 14 arefitted one into the other so as to form the portion 15 of the insulatingspacer assembly. The completely finished construction is shown in Figure2, and the partially formed construction is shown in Figure 3.

It will be seen therefore that this same type of preformed wire assemblycan be used to join the ends of an insulating spacer to the ends of guywires or can be used to join the end of a guy wire and any fittingwhatsoever, such as the clevis shown in Figure 2, to the ends of aninsulating spacer.

While the invention has been described with particular attention to guyWire insulating means it is to be understood that Where the expressionguy Wire is used, it is to be interpreted as meaning the customary guywire or any other Wire or similar member in which this insulating spacerconstruction is desired.

Further it is to be understood that wherever an insulating spacer rod ismentioned that this term rod is to be interpreted broadly as covering around rod, a rectangular rod or a rod of any other shape. It is to beunderstood further that only a few of the many ways are shown in whichthe ends of the insulating spacer member are joined to the guy wire orother member.

Although this invention has been described in con siderable detail, itis to be understood that such description is intended as illustrativerather than limiting, as the invention may be variously embodied and isto be interpreted as claimed.

I claim:

1. A guy Wireconstruction comprising a pair of guy wires having spacedends in direct alignment with each other, and an insulating spacerassembly joining the spaced ends of the guy Wires, said spacer assemblyincluding an insulator of larger diameter than the guy Wires, tubulargripping members each formed of preformed helically twisted tubularshaped wire assemblies having tWo tubular gripping portions of differentdiameters, the portion of larger diameter having an expanded endgripping an end of the insulator and the portion of smaller diametergripping an end of a guy Wire.

2. A guy wire construction comprising a first member and a secondmember, an elongated insulator positioned between said members andhaving a first end located adjacent the first member and having a secondend located adjacent said second member, a first connecting unit joiningsaid first end of said insulator to said first member, at least thesecond member being a guy wire of smaller diameter than said elongatedinsulator, a second connecting unit joining said second end of saidinsulator to said guy Wire, said second connecting unit having one endexpanded and having the Wires wrapped around said second end of saidinsulator and having Wires of the other end Wrapped around the guy wire,and a clamp extending around the said other end of said secondconnecting unit and said end of the guy Wire and arresting the expansionof the Wires of said second connecting unit, said clamp being locatedbetween said expanded portion and the adjacent portion of said secondconnecting unit Which surrounds the guy wire.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS839,260 enson Dec. 25, 1906 2,736,398 Peterson Feb. 28, 1956 2,761,273Peterson Sept. 4, 1956 2,825,752 Knutz et al. Mar. 4, 1958 FOREIGNPATENTS 1,137,642 France Ian. 14, 1957

